"Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession."

Last Tuesday was a holiday, and yesterday was a holiday. I am thankful for the holidays because school days are rigorous. I never know what will lie before me. A morning class can seem to go well, and later I will try the same lesson with another class, but produce only chaos. The first class in the morning seems to be the best behaviorally, but the worst academically. The class consists of the AP Sophomores and the Junior regulars. The quarter grades were, more or less, A’s for the sophomores and D’s for the Juniors. Perhaps I will give different assignments? Although, much of the problem is just failure to do the work, especially if they are absent. I did have 2 guys from that class come to school last Friday and work until they had passing grades. The girls, perhaps from my neglect to remind them (a thousand times), never tried to make up work, and a couple failed the quarter.

The Sr English Reading turned out tolerably well in my estimation. The AP class grades, however, should have been higher. They are “chipwang,” which is lazy! Perhaps some will really buckle down now. The Senior Art class did not fair too well grade wise, but there was a full range from A to failing. Because some, without perfect English or exceptional art skills, achieved A’s, I am less inclined to lower my standards despite noticing that their art grades seem to be the lowest. Many of them cannot comprehend why on earth they would study art or waste their time learning to draw. This past week, however, we have been working on two point perspective drawings and they seem to be enjoying this more. My theory is that some of the less naturally talented artists are able to produce fairly reasonable images using this method, so they enjoy it more. Also, I think it appeals to some of the guys, who are perhaps more left-brained. Maybe there are some engineers and architects among them! Oh, that they would dream so big!
Pray for their eyes to be open to the glories of God and the vastness of this world, with so many opportunities! Ah! That they might be wide-eyed with wonder, rather than looking through hopeless, boredom glazed eyes. I know, however, that growing and learning is a process. It does not happen all at once, and I am amazed at my own growth and realizations even in the past few months. I cannot tell you how many outstanding “Ah-ha!” moments I’ve had or feelings of sudden excitement and joy over things I’ve been surrounded with all my life. Oh, the glories and joy that are in our Lord.

If your walk seems monotonous, keep at it because God, in His time, will reward you. Isn’t it interesting that our goal and our reward are one in the same: to be like Christ. The more I see Him, the more I know Him, the more like Him I become, and in the future I shall be like Him for I shall see Him as He is: glorified. Wow!

Hmm…back to the temporal (ah, but sprinkled sweetly with knowledge of eternal rewards and God-planned moments), yesterday was FSM Independence day, so there was no school, but we had a “Trash-a-thon.” Miss Katie did not join, but I did, and I got my first Chuukese sunburn. We walked from the school down to the airport. *shrug* Maybe it’s about 3 miles? We picked up trash-something I’ve wanted to do since my arrival. The kids were so funny because if something was too muddy or too big they would say, “Oh, Miss Emily, just leave that one.” I also asked them what we would do with the trash after we picked it up. Tony, maintenance staff, would take it to a “dumping site.” Unfortunately, it is likely not less of a pollutant there, but at least visitors to Chuuk won’t see it, and it teaches responsibility. One student asked why we were bothering to pick up trash when the roads were so bad. "Why don’t we wait until we have a new road?" I told him it was good practice for when we would have a new road. I also motivated them by telling them we had to clean up because my parents were comcouldn't visit, and we couldn’t let them see all this trash on the side of the road. This actually seemed to work!

Of course, being blonde, blue-eyed, and fair skinned attracts attention here. Some of my male students were expressing their contempt as we walked because “those guys are staring at you.” It’s simultaneously flattering, awkward and hilarious when my students (guys or girls) tell me how beautiful I am. I often try to make their compliments all-inclusive. “Thank you, yes, just like God made (name some female students) and Miss Katie beautiful.” Yesterday they told me my eyes were like the deep-blue sky. It was delightfully poetic! Well, at least they are learning simile! Later, as my pace quickened leaving them some distance behind, “Miss Emily, don’t put an ocean between us!” I think, they are quoting song lyrics.

When we arrived at the airport, I was ready to turn around and walk back. I tried to entice them to race me, but not a single one was up for the challenge. They were “too tired” and planning to wait for the truck to give them a lift. I started back alone. After I had gone, two of my freshmen girls caught me running and walked with me the rest of the way. It was fun to walk and talk with them. Just a few hundred feet from the school, we saw the truck passing to go pick up the students still waiting at the airport. The girls wanted to go for a ride and I joined them (despite that it defeated the purpose of our walk). We went and picked up the students waiting in the shade of the trees, and proceeded to drop them near their homes. We drove all the way up to the Jesuit school, where I had not yet been. When we were near it, there was a huge “dump” with trash spilling into the ocean and I expressed my dismay. They informed me it was from the school. *sigh*

The students had insisted that I sit in the cab, rather than the bed of the truck for “air con.” I rode next to one of Katie’s favorite students, Maverick. Many of the girls asked him to move to the back, so they could ride with me and the air conditioning; he refused despite my encouragement that he be a gentleman. He insisted that his behavior was perfectly acceptable in his culture. It was good and interesting to be able to converse with him, though I do most of the talking and he does mostly smiling and nodding. He is rather apathetic and down on Chuuk. I often hear students referring to “crazy Chuukese.” Basically, they are saying, “We’re no good. We do things wrong. We can’t make a difference or change.” They also seem disinterested in the fact that there could be something different from the life they know. I was asking Maverick, for example, if he had a ticket to go anywhere, where would he want to go. *shrug* “Nowhere.” “You mean if I said, wouldn't’s a ticket to go see Niagara Falls, you wouldn’t want to go.’” He relented, “No, then I would say, ‘I guess I will go with you.’” When there was a view of the ocean, I would say, “What a beautiful place you live in,” and he would reply, “No, look at the roads. Look at the trash.” We drove by a recently overturned car off to one side of the road, and he told me no one would come and clean it up. No one cared that it was there.

This apathy reminds me of the Middle English ballads that the seniors were reading. One ballad was about a knight that died and how no one mourned and no one knew where he had gone (heaven or hell) and no one even cared. I am curious to know more about their customs regarding death and funerals, too, for they go to funerals all the time. We passed one student's house and Maverick told me they were having a funeral. I asked him how he knew, he said because they were wearing black. If any relative, no matter how close, passes, you go to the funeral. With huge, extended families here, you go to a lot of funerals.

Another event of yesterday was that I was taken out to breakfast with Director and Vice Principal by the grandparents of one of my students. The meal was part of an apology they were making to me and the school because the student had threatened me. It was very touching to see how much the student is cared for by his family, and how grateful they were to Mizpah for giving him another chance, being kind, and giving him an education. At one point, the grandma said something to me in Chuukese, and the man told me she called me her daughter. I will look on this student with new, more compassionate eyes. These grandparents love this student with an unconditional love because he is their son, their family, and isn’t that how God loves him? And how God loves me? I wish my compassion could change him, could move him. I must patiently wait and trust, however, for God’s compassion to change him.